The Legal Theory Of The Right To Personal Development

Development is a universal human theme.The right to development was recognized as a new type of human rights when the Declaration on the Right to Development was adopted by the United Nations in 1986.The United Nations adopted the “Declaration on the right to development”on December 4,1986,proclaiming that “The right to development is an inalienable human right by virtue of which every human person and all peoples are entitled to participate in,contribute to,and enjoy economic,social,cultural and political development,in which all human rights and fundamental freedoms can be fully realized.” As a second collective human rights following the right of national self-determination,the right to development has broken through the traditional concept of human rights in western countries,marking a milestone in the development of human rights.The right to development is a unity of collective and individual human rights.Although this double subject of the right to development has been affirmed in international legal documents,the debate concerning about it has not ceased in international practice.The theoretical research on the right to development,as a new type of human rights,is relatively weak in the field of human rights.The theory of right to development is a complete theory,including both the theory of collective rights and individual rights,as well as the theory of collective right to development and individual right to development.As to the research of the right to development,domestic scholars mainly focus on the collective right to development whereas the research on individual right to development is weak.“What is the concept of the individual right to development?”;"What is its subject of right ?";"What is its subject of obligation ?";"What are the obstacles of the realization of this right ?";and so on.Research on these most basic questions is virtually blank.Important and novel as they are for the study of individual right to development,it is urgent to strengthen relative theoretical and innovation research on it.This paper aims to make some preliminary discussions on these basic and important issues in order to arouse the attention and subsequent research on the study of personal development right in the academic circle.This paper is divided into six chapters.The first chapter mainly introduces the origin and research significance of the right to development.Generated by various factors such as change of world structure,development of human rights and theoretical cognition of human to development,the right to development is an inevitable outcome of historical development.This paper holds that,from the theory of the right to development to the whole human rights theory,the study of the individual right to development is of great theoretical and practical significance.The final result of the development of each country,especially the realization of the right to development,belongs to every citizen of a particular country.At the same time,for China,which is attacked by Western countries on human rights,the research on the individual right to development is an important aspect and a practical action in the fight for its international discourse power,which is of unique value.It must be pointed out that the individual right to development is fundamentally different from the individualism in the West.The individual right to development we emphasize has different cultural foundations to the western views of human rights: we adhere to the guidance of Marxism,the unity of individual and collective human rights and the idea of a community of common destiny for all mankind.The second chapter mainly expounds on the guiding ideology of the research on the individual right to development——Marxism.Although because of the times,Marx and Engels have not directly studied or discussed the individual right to development,they made many wonderful discussions about human development,including individual development,and had a deep understanding of rights.All of these still have important political and academic significance for our study on the individual right to development today.It can be said that individuals and their development are the focus of Marxism,that individual development is an important goal of Marxism and that the theory of individual right to development is an inevitable requirement of communist theory.The third chapter mainly discusses the rich content of the individual right to development.In fact,it is the combination or sum of the legal individual rights to development.As a comprehensive right,it should at least guarantee individual's right in political,economic,cultural and social aspects.Traditional legal works or the provisions of the legal system has discussed the individual right to development from the perspective of the country and the society.This paper attempts to make new observations on existing rights from the perspective of the individual right to development,expecting to provide some different views to existing legal works and legal system,in order to help relevant research to promote the development of the theory of individual right to development.The fourth chapter mainly studies the main subjects of the individual right to development.The realization of the individual right to development depends on many factors.As for the subject of right,individuals are the subject of the individual right to development,the realization of whose right to development is influenced by various factors such as class,gender,ability and age.In terms of the subject of obligation,the country as the primary subject of obligation,could create institutional environment and provide compulsory protection for the realization of the individual right to development;in specific legal relationships,the subject of obligations is often a specific individual because individuals are generally the subject of obligation;groups or social institutions cover almost all social organizations where people are engaged in joint activities,such as political organizations,economic organizations,cultural organizations,other social groups that are consciously organized for a specific purpose,and so on.Groups or social institutions constitute a special subject of obligation.The fifth chapter mainly explores the obstacles to the realization of the individual right to development.The overall development of human beings is the goal that everyone should pursue,and each person enjoying a full right to development is the highest demand in the development of modern civilization.However,the realization or the extent of the realization of the individual right to development is restricted by a variety of factors.Specifically,it is at least constrained by personal qualities and abilities,cognitive limitations of related subjects,adverse effects of institutional imperfection and non institutional barriers.In this sense,the realization of the right to development is a process and a result of the interaction between ideal and reality,and is an evolving historical process.The sixth chapter mainly discusses the legal guarantee of the individual right to development.The law is always the most stable and reliable way for human rights protection,although the issue of human rights is not simply a legal issue.This chapter mainly analyzes how the four links of the rule of law,namely,legislation,law enforcement,judicature and law-abiding,protect the individual right to development.For the realization of the individual right to development,these four links solve the problems of availability,implementation,enforcement and observation of the law respectively.Each of them is indispensable and together,they provide the most stable and reliable guarantee for the realization of the individual right to development.